No Mercy is often regarded as the best wrestling video game ever. In many people’s eyes, it’s superior tothe best SmackDown Vs. Raw gamesand the WWE 2K titles, as well as every other entry in the main WWE games series. There are many reasons for this, from its deep customization options to its fun core gameplay.
Yet, as great as the game is, it isn’t perfect, especially when it comes to giving a true representation of wrestling. There are simply things in this game that you wouldn’t see on actual WWE programming. Here are the main things that stand out.
10Incomplete Entrances
Entrances are an essential part of a wrestler’s presentation, as they instantly give viewers an insight into who the wrestler is and what they’re about before they ever touch someone. The entrances in WWF No Mercy, however, don’t fully accomplish this goal because they’re very short.
You don’t actually see the wrestlers get to the ring and make their full entrance. Instead, they take several steps down the aisle, pose, and then it’s over. So, most of them are fairly underwhelming compared to their real-life counterparts.
9Doing Moves
One of the most enjoyable aspects of No Mercy is the game’s grappling system, which is unique and satisfying. It isn’t very realistic, though. For every grapple move you do, you first need to grab your opponent in a collar-and-elbow position, then do your move.
You don’t see wrestlers do this much in actual WWE. For instance, if someone is doing a headscissors takedown, they don’t grab the person with their hands first before unleashing the move. That would severely hurt the flow of most matches. The decision to include this grapple system was likely more about gameplay than realism.
8The Undertaker Doesn’t Have His Actual Theme Song
No Mercy was released in late 2000, which is when The Undertaker was using his American Bad*** gimmick. This is reflected in the game as he’s wearing the blue shirt and black pants combination that he was donning at the time. So, his outfit is correct. However, he has generic music when he comes down to the ring.
His American Bad*** theme, made by Kid Rock, is nowhere to be found, despite that being his theme in real life at the time. This is likely due to a licensing issue, but it does meanthe guy who has been in more wrestling games than anyone elsefeels a little incomplete in No Mercy.
7Can’t Get Disqualified Outside The Ring
In actual pro wrestling, a wrestler can only use a weapon on their opponent when the ref is not looking, or there are no disqualifications. For some reason, No Mercy adds an extra exception. Wrestlers can freely hit each other with weapons outside the ring.
This is not a rule on standard WWE programming, and it’s unclear why it’s a rule in this game. After all, it’s very strange. You can beat someone to a pulp with objects outside the ring, but if you hit them inside the ring, you’re disqualified. That doesn’t make any sense.
6Everyone Is Nearly The Same Height
In the character selection screen in No Mercy, the game provides the height for each wrestler based on what they’re billed at on actual WWE programming. It’s odd that they include that information, though, because those heights are completely ignored in matches.
Everyone is almost the same size in the ring. Sometimes, some wrestlers seem slightly bigger than their opponents, but not by much. So, giants like Kane don’t tower over tiny wrestlers like Crash. This makes for an odd visual and is very different from the actual WWE, where wrestlers come in all different sizes.
5Getting Weapons From The Crowd
Generally, wrestlers in WWE grab weapons from under the ring or around the ringside. In No Mercy, though, the weapons come from the crowd. Now, this isn’t completely unheard of in wrestling.
People have taken objects from crowd members over the years, particularly in companies like ECW and smaller indie organizations. However, it has very rarely happened in WWE. Plus, you don’t usually get ring bells and kendo sticks from audience members like you do in No Mercy.
4Four People Start The Royal Rumble Match
Even the best modern WWE games struggle to recreate the iconic Royal Rumble match properly. After all, even with today’s tech, you can’t have 10+ wrestlers in the ring at one time. So, that’s understandably missing for this game.
What is more puzzling is why four wrestlers start a Royal Rumble in No Mercy. In the actual Royal Rumble, two people begin the match, with more coming down in intervals. The game has wrestlers coming down regularly, but it puts four of them in the ring to start things off.
3Tag Teams Don’t Enter Together
If you’re a tag team wrestler coming out for your match, you typically enter with your partner. However, there are no tag entrances in WWF No Mercy. So, even if you’re doing a tag match, everyone gets their own entrance.
This especially feels weird when you use teams like The Dudleys. Buh Buh comes out with the classic Dudley Boy music playing, and then D-Von enters using the exact same song. Technical limitations likely played a part in this.
2Triple H Doesn’t Look Like Triple H
With No Mercy coming out so long ago, the character models naturally don’t look as good anymore. Yet, Triple H’s model never looked good. Despite being one of WWE’s biggest stars at the time, his face in this game looks terrible.
He looks incredibly old and wrinkly. In fact, if it weren’t for his gear, you probably wouldn’t even recognize him. Thankfully, for Triple H, there have been many wrestling video games since that contain better-looking versions of him.
1No Referees Or Commentators
So, this isn’t really about the wrestlers, but the refs and commentary team are also an important part of wrestling. Yet, they are nowhere to be found during a match in No Mercy. There is no referee in the ring nor a commentator behind the commentary desk.
Of course, refs and commentators are always featured on WWE TV. While their absence isn’t a major issue, it hurts the overall presentation. Inspecial referee matches, your chosen ref is in the ring, so it wasn’t technically impossible at the time to include a ref.
